Where the hell was she? TJ drifted past Alyssa's office for the third time. Frustrated, he checked his watch, ignoring the frantic knot forming in his stomach. She was fine, his brain insisted.

Tell it to my gut. He checked his phone for the tenth time. There were three texts from MaryJo-- a woman he hadn't even met. MaryJo clearly understood the chain of command. The need to keep him informed. But not Alyssa. "She should've texted me before lunch," he muttered.

"Mr. O'Brien-- how are you faring? Have we kept to the schedule?"

Alyssa breezed by him, seemingly unaware she'd violated at least three rules. Relief raced over him-- which annoyed him even more. Nothing was wrong. Nothing would go wrong. "Miss Barnes-- you're finally back from lunch."

She glanced over her shoulder, eyes puzzled by his tone. "Why don't we review your progress in my office."

Shaking off his irritation, he closed the door behind him. "Where the hell have you been?"

Alyssa tossed her purse in the drawer. "Like you, I've been at lunch."

"Where?" Conscious of an unpleasant sensation in the pit of his stomach, TJ lowered his voice. "I didn't see you in the cafeteria."

"I met my mother at Mario's."

"You left the building?" The icy knot of fear heated to fury. TJ tried to bank the feeling as it tightened his chest.

"T-- I walked three hundred yards across the esplanade." Her soft smile was meant to placate.

It wasn't deliberate. Her carelessness. She didn't know about Little Guy. He hadn't told her about seeing the bearded guy today. How the hell was he supposed to keep her safe if she- "You're supposed to text me anytime you leave this suite."

"Did you text me when you left for the cafeteria with no less than six female admirers?"

"That was recon." Mostly. Since he'd seen no escape from the gaggle of inquisitive women, he'd accepted his fate. Now-- all he could think about was kissing the smirk from the one woman cluttering his brain.

"Recon?" She came around her desk, crowding the limited space remaining. "What'd you find out?" Biting her lip to keep from laughing, she leaned back against her desk. "Their zodiac signs?"

He'd learned Alyssa's flashy, prick fiancé had announced their engagement at-- of all places-- a political fundraiser for Theo. And then broken it off while she was still recovering in the hospital. That the woman he'd left her for-- McQuinn's daughter was wealthy, vapid and according to Kelly (his new BFF), not nearly as pretty as Alyssa.

"Laugh if you want. I learn a great deal of helpful information just by talking with people." At some point, he'd have to remember to tell Lyss that her coworkers seemed to be overly fascinated by her love life. As her scent invaded the foot of clearance that still remained, TJ closed his eyes on the vivid image from only hours earlier of her taut, beautiful body over his.

"Does that door lock?" Not waiting for an answer, TJ pulled her into his lap. The feel of her in his arms did little to sooth the prickling agitation that seemed to have seeped into his skin. Cupping her butt, he tugged her closer.

"I'm a Virgo, by the way," she said against his lips. "Moon rising in Jupiter."

He swallowed her laughter, drawing it into his lungs like breathable sunshine. As his brain lectured him on the dangers of being discovered, he took the kiss deeper. Until her arms were wrapped around his neck. Until her tongue was tangling with his. Until his argumentative brain began to incinerate. Until Alyssa's shuddering gasps told him he needed to strip her from her clothes or get the hell out of her office.

TJ broke free, pressing his lips to the pulse racing in her throat. "Lyss-- I need to get back-" Interrupted by a text message, he gently set her aside. Rounding her desk, he gained several feet of surprisingly necessary clearance.

"Who is it?" Her voice nearly normal, she straightened her blouse.

"MaryJo. She's caught up with me. I need to go."

"What does that mean?" Her hand on his sleeve made him pause.

TJ turned back, tensing when she took a step closer. "I have a little flash drive-- at least that's what it looks like. But it sends a signal to MaryJo-- and she's able to use it to gain access to that computer."

Her eyes widened. "That's sort of scary."

He nodded. "Think about it-- a cleaning crew, maintenance guys." He hesitated. "Which means if we don't find the pictures in an obvious location, they could theoretically be anywhere."

He turned the knob, aware of the growing need for space. The last four days had unsettled him. After last night, he sensed a growing shift. As though the ground under his feet was moving-- and only he was aware of the movement. "I need to get back to work."

"Wait."

He tightened imperceptibly as she straightened his tie. When she lifted a hand to his face, something deep within him stilled.

"You've got lipstick here."

Her fingers pressed gently at the corner of his mouth. TJ was suddenly unsure what would happen if he looked at her. What she might be able to read in his expression. Jerking the door open, he brushed past her. "Don't leave the suite without texting me."

* * *

Alyssa was on the service elevator to the basement before she remembered Teagan's rule. If he caught her missing so soon after his lecture- She pulled out her phone to rectify the situation. For the cakewalk job he'd claimed this would be, T had seemed stressed earlier. One minute he was lecturing her-- the next, he was kissing her as though they might need to find the nearest broom closet. "And then-- he's back to frowning." She sighed. There was no sense making it worse. A compromise would only cost a minute.

"No signal." She chewed her lip, unable to forget the strange confusion in his eyes when he'd bolted from her office. Humor him, she decided, pressing the button for the lobby. She'd fire off a quick text, then hop back on for the ride to the basement. When the doors slid open, she crossed the lobby to the windows where she'd be sure to get a signal. Two minutes later she was back on the freight elevator, key and sticky note in hand.

Since the basement was off limits to the general public, when the service elevator chimed, she was supposed to insert the key and the doors would open. "Hopefully Donna was right," she muttered.

As promised, the doors opened. Though the immediate area was deserted, she heard a door slam further down the hall. A man approached, his badge twisted around. "Miss? Can I go through the door with you? My key just broke off in the lock in B West Corridor."

At her hesitation, he smiled. "I'm interning with the Commissioner of Safety's office. This is my third trip down for records."

She smiled in acknowledgement. "Maybe you need a hand truck."

Hazel eyes lit with amusement. "That requires a requisition form to Maintenance."

"I hear you." Bonding over mutual annoyance with government bureaucracy, Alyssa relented. "Sure-- no problem. I'm heading to B East. Which hallway?" She nodded to the labyrinth laid out before them. Four different corridors fanning in opposite directions.

"Same here."

"Who're you working for?" She inserted her key in the hall door.

The young, blonde man kept his gaze on the door. "I'm actually working on a temporary team in the Commissioner's office."

"Rumor is that Commissioner Sheridan will be retiring soon."

"I've heard that buzz, too."

Alyssa glanced at her note. Room 27. "This is me on the right. Where do you need to go? I'll unlock the door for you."

"Just across the hall," he directed. "Twenty-six."

She inserted her key in the lock. When the door swung in, the lights were already on. "Okay-- good luck. You should be able to get out without the key, but if you run into trouble, just come knock on 27."

Once inside 27, Alyssa checked the sticky note. The shelves were laid out on grids. "Just like Home Depot." If all went well, she'd find what she needed and be free of the claustrophobic stillness in fifteen minutes or less. The only sound in the windowless room was the buzz of fluorescent bulbs overhead and the faint sound of faraway doors closing.

Eying the walls, she grimaced. "Such a lovely shade of suicide gray." Shelf seventeen. Alyssa trudged into the maze. Five minutes later, she arrived at her destination. Determined not to look back to see how far away the door now seemed, she focused on the alphabetical bins. Since she'd cut down the middle, she was forced to stroll several aisles before she found Bin M.

"Please be on a low shelf," she pleaded. Having passed several rickety looking, rolling steel ladders, Alyssa was not above praying to get out of having to move one of those monsters into position. Signs on the wall offered directions in how to lock them in place so she wouldn't roll away. "Or plunge to my death," she muttered. After another five minutes of searching, she dusted her hands together, worried what her blouse would look like by the time this was over. "Seriously? I'd give up free coffee if we could hire back the clerk." Relieved to discover the shelf was only four up, Alyssa found she could reach it if she stretched on her toes. Mayor's Office: box 798 was the third one she checked. "Thank you, God."

Bracing herself, she swung it down, preparing for it to be heavy-- grateful to discover it wasn't. Setting it on the floor, she flipped off the lid, marveling at Donna's organization skills. The schedules were not only date-ordered, but numbered. She found the right quarter and pulled April and May free of the tight, orderly pile. "Now the phone logs."

Three minutes later, she had two schedules and eight phone logs clutched to her chest. Grateful for pockets, she tucked her phone and the key into her jacket before beginning the long trek back to the door.

Alyssa paused three rows later, the echo of voices in B corridor making her wish she was at the door and ready to lock up so she could walk back to the elevator with a living person. Another row later, she heard the slide of a key. "Hello?"

Had it been her door? The corridor reverberated with echoes. Perhaps it was another room entirely. She staggered a moment later when the fluorescents flickered and then went completely dark. "Hey-- I'm in here." Her pulse rioting, she waited several seconds and tried again. "Can you turn on the lights?"

“Okay-" No need to panic. She was a mature adult. A mature adult who worked for the mayor. A mature adult who's afraid of the dark. She inhaled several deep breaths, releasing them slowly. Hyperventilating was not allowed. There was a perfectly logical explanation. "A guard maybe." Saw the lights on and snapped them off. Saving electricity.

In the sudden world of total blackness, Alyssa fought for calm. "You will not lose it." Her quavering voice broke the claustrophobic stillness. Not darkness, she pleaded. Anything but the dark-- Unable to get her bearings, the floor felt tilted under her feet. Groping the shelving unit, she ran her hand along a smooth surface. It was eye level. Setting her pile there, she reached for her phone. Would a flashlight app work without a signal?

Was it a power outage? She swiped her phone, relieved for the flood of dim light. Her brain wanted to leapfrog ahead in time. She'd make it to the door. Go through the door. Into the creepy, smothering hallway. Back to the likely non-working elevators . . . which would mean finding the fire stairs. Heart pounding erratically, she forced several cleansing breaths past her lips.

Forgetting the flashlight app for a moment, she dialed Teagan, strangely comforted that he was upstairs somewhere. In the same building-- not that it was helping her now. After several seconds of fast ring, her heart sank. "No signal."

Her pulse still frantic, she was reminded of their conversation on the walk home the previous night. Teagan's description of the night. The feeling of absorption. Instead of terror. Oneness. "Just keep a grip," she muttered. "You'll make it to the door."

Eyes adjusting in the murky passage, she could sense the looming shelves. Taking a tentative step, she bumped into one of the rolling staircases. Step by step, she inched along the shelves. "At this rate, you'll reach the door by Friday."

A moment later her skin prickled with sudden awareness. Had she heard something? Alyssa tried to ignore the eerie sensation she was not alone. Her brain began a series of excruciating rationalizations. But her heart kicked into overdrive, screaming just one word.

Run.

Shutting down her phone, she winced as the darkness drank her into it. Swallowing her whimper of fear, she rounded the next corner, no longer caring whether she would become more disoriented. Her breath coming in gasps, she covered her mouth. A step. A footstep. There was no doubting it. She'd heard a footstep. Another person was in the room. Releasing a shaky breath, she battled the fear that wanted to seize control of her reason. A person-- creeping through the dark. Alyssa whirled around, realizing her mistake when everything tilted. She reached out, catching one of the shelves to hold her up. Teagan-- Dear God, why couldn't he be there with her?

Several rows away, she saw the glow of a flashlight. The app worked without a signal. Alyssa dropped to the floor, suddenly realizing it felt better than trying to fight for her equilibrium. Slipping off her heels, she scooted along the floor on her knees.

"There's nowhere to go."

The whispered voice shot through her like a jolt of electricity. She risked a glance down the long passageway. Ghostly light bobbed along the shelves, creating macabre, dancing shadows.

"Why don't you come out so we can talk?"

The stranger's steps were as confident as his voice. Alyssa squeezed her eyes shut, her breath strangling in her throat. The harder she tried to be quiet, the louder her panting grew.

"I can hear you."

She would lead him right to her. Feeling her way along the shelves, she reached into a bottom shelf and found an indentation. Smothering a cry of relief, she crawled into it. A carton lid jabbed into her ribcage as she made herself as small as possible. The roaring in her ears made it impossible to know whether she'd made too much noise. Was she hidden?

Please, God. Let him be looking for someone standing. Endless minutes later, she held her breath as the light swept down her row. He was still at the far end. Too afraid to move, Alyssa glanced down at her skirt. Was she all the way in? Was she hanging out of the shelf?

She startled a moment later at the distant scrape of gears as the freight elevator descended to the basement. The intruder reacted. The flashlight doused, pitching the murky shadows into blackness. Another eternal minute brought a faraway noise . . . shouting. Relieved, she prayed the voices were drawing closer. "Come to B hall," she willed them. "Come to B."

The crashing sound of someone plowing into a rolling staircase drowned out everything else as he stumbled back to the storage room door.

"Bastard," she muttered. "How does he know where it is?" The door opened, then slammed shut. Thank God. She'd take being alone in the dark over the return of his presence.

The muffled sound of footsteps running down the corridor sent relief coursing through her. Someone was out there. Working on the problem. Unsure whether she should try to crawl out, she remained still, her legs trembling with the aftermath of fear. Until the lights turned on, she wasn't going anywhere.

"Lyss?" Teagan's frantic voice cut through the tangled fear. "Where's the goddamn panel?"

"Gimme a minute." The corridor beyond the storage room suddenly flooded with light, a trickle of it splashing back the seventeen rows to her hiding spot.

"She's supposed to be in 27," someone yelled.

"Alyssa," he shouted.

"Here."Her watery voice couldn't compete with all the shouting in the hallway. Swinging her legs out, she sat up-- in the split second before remembering she was in a storage shelf. Whacking her head on the shelf above, she fell back, clutching her head. An explosion of stars lit her eyes from behind her lids.

The door crashed open, the room flooding with light as the fluorescents buzzed to life. "Alyssa-- are you in here?"

"Back here," she croaked. Floating on a wave of pain, she heard several sets of footsteps-- some close, some farther away. With the effort of a thousand horses, she rolled out of the shelf to the concrete floor and crawled to the middle of the aisle. A rush of stale air greeted her in the center of the passage. The floor under her cheek was blessedly cool. "Here."

"Lyss-- Jesus." Footsteps pounding, Teagan dropped down beside her. "She's here." Alyssa winced when he shouted. Shaking hands swept over her. "Baby-- you're bleeding." His voice faltered.

"Hiding." After the paralyzing darkness, she discovered the lights were now too bright. "I hit my head."

Another set of hands, more confident than the first, moved over her methodically. "Does anything else hurt?"

"No." Even now, the pain was receding. She blinked several times when a dripping paper towel dabbed at her matted hair. "I think I can sit up."

Teagan scooped her up, propping her in front of him on the floor. "Is this okay?"

Releasing a shaky breath, she sank back against him. "I'm good."

Another set of hands offered an icepack. Teagan set it gently on her scalp. "It's a surface scrape," he explained, his voice oddly hoarse. "But they tend to bleed a lot."

"Okay." Alyssa glanced down at her feet. "My shoes-"

"We've got them." He dropped a kiss by her ear. "Luther found them a few rows back."

"I had to-" Suddenly exhausted, she paused. "It's too hard to explain."

"Later, sweet."

"My records-" When she would have risen, Teagan stopped her.

"We'll find them," he assured.

"What about the guy-" She felt him stiffen.

"What guy?"

"The guy-- who turned the lights out. He was . . . chasing me."

* * *

TJ glanced over her head to Burke. "Did you see anyone?" Surprised he could speak around the panic choking his throat, he registered Luther's frown. "I thought it was a power outage?"

"The maintenance guys are still investigating. I'll have more information in fifteen minutes." Burke shot him a glance. "You got this? I need to check a few things."

"Go." He glanced down at Alyssa, hoping his expression wouldn't convey the terror she'd put him through. "What guy?"

She shifted the wet paper towel to another spot and winced. "Ow."

"Is it getting worse?" He resisted the urge to haul her into his lap. "Maybe you should see a doctor-"

"It's just a little scrape."

He could see it was just a scrape. But his eyes and his brain were having difficulty communicating. His brain was urging him to carry her out of the damned building and take her home. "Maybe we should go-"

"T-" She squeezed his forearm, as though sensing he needed calming. "It's a scrape." She shifted as though she wanted to get up.

She was so-- tiny, sitting on the floor in front of him. Her dust smeared face streaked with tears as she reasoned with him. All he could imagine was what she'd gone through. Her fear of the dark. And he hadn't been there.

He could've taken ten minutes to escort her to the basement. To assist her with the records that had obviously been too damned important for her to wait. "Can you walk?"

"I'm good."

She was always good. Too good-- for him, anyway. One day into the op and he couldn't manage to keep her safe. He was jacked up, he acknowledged. Ever since he'd gotten the text from her-- that she was on the way to the basement, his chest had tightened with warning. But his fevered thoughts would render him useless.

She accepted his hand for balance as she slipped on her shoes. "I took them off so he wouldn't hear me moving around."

"Tell me what happened." He could taste the metallic aftermath of adrenaline. While Lyss seemed withdrawn and weary, TJ felt as though he could lift a car. Run several miles. Or just punch a frigging wall.

Alyssa checked her jacket pockets, withdrawing her phone and a key. In her other hand, she held a sticky note. "I need to trace back so I can find my records. I set them down when the lights went out."

Reining in his need for answers-- he summoned patience. "So, you're pulling records and the lights went out?"

"I'd finished," she corrected. "I'd started walking back to the front. And then I heard a key." She glanced up, confusion in her eyes. "I thought someone used the key to come into this storage room. But it's so echo-y down here . . . it's hard to tell."

He was forced to stop as she hunted shelves for the documents she'd laid down. "Maybe we can come back for them?"

"No-- it'll be bad enough returning them. I'm not leaving without them."

Like hell she'd head back down there alone. TJ sighed. "Lyss, is it something you really need?" He just wanted to get her upstairs. He wanted to wipe her eyes and lock her in her office so he'd know she would be safe for the rest of the day.

"They're at eye level." Her stubborn voice dared him to disagree.

"So-- my waist level then?," he teased. Giving up on convincing her to leave, he began checking shelves as they walked to the back of the storage area. Keeping her in sight, he fanned out into the next row. Maybe he could speed up the process.

A few minutes later, he paused. "Is it like a date book?"

Her heels clicked rapidly on the concrete floor. "You found them?" A moment later, she smiled. "That's it."

TJ scanned the area around them. "So, this is where the lights went out?"

Alyssa nodded. "I set the pile down because everything felt tilted. I couldn't see to walk. "

His heart thudding, he nodded. "That must have been . . . pretty dark." She'd have been terrified.

"I was losing it," she confessed, her hand moving to her throat. "For a second, I couldn't breathe. But then I-- remembered what you said last night . . . about being absorbed by it?"

"Yeah?" TJ noticed the patch of dried blood still visible at her hairline. Her pale face somehow still miraculously animated by warm, sapphire eyes. How the hell could she go through all this and still be smiling?

"And . . . it didn't feel so bad." Her smile was embarrassed. "I tried to think about being part of it, rather than it being against me."

Her chuckle taking him by surprise, relief trickled through him. "Did it work?"

"It's not like I'd want to test it again . . . but for that moment, it kept me from coming unglued." She glanced up at him. "Besides, the guy said he could hear me panting-- so I knew I had to get a grip or he'd find me."

TJ skidded to a stop. "He spoke to you? He was actually here?" The icy knot returned tenfold.

"What do you mean-- actually? You didn't believe me?" Alyssa spun on her heel. "You assumed . . . I just lost it? That during my meltdown I-- imagined everything?"

He tugged her back into him. "Lyss-- what did he say?"

"Take me upstairs."

Jeweled eyes shooting daggers, she shook free of his grasp and stalked toward the door. "Babe-- we never saw anyone in the hallway."

"Well, then he couldn't possibly have been here."

Reaching the door a few steps before him, she slammed through it, closing it in his face. TJ ran a hand down his face. "Okay, you blew that one." Jerking the door open, he followed her into the hall, hustling to catch her before she abandoned him at the service elevator. A thought hit him as he caught up. If she had met up with someone back there in the dark-- they'd let him get away.